Gauges for Combat Flight Simulator

[Ivan]

The bitmaps for the gauge took a couple evenings to get to the way I wanted them.
The actual reprogramming took much less than one evening working from the Corsair 500 Knot ASI.
I have tested the gauge and it works, but don't have a good A6M panel as a host. All the panel updates described earlier in this thread have been lost even though the gauges can be reproduced.
I also still have yet to find a current MDL with the latest updates since the initial release in 2013.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

For those of you who might be interested in setting up a Gauge Development environment, here are a couple screenshots to give you an idea of how I do things using the FS2000 SDK for CFS1 Gauges.
It doesn't quite follow all of the SDK example structure because I wanted things connected to one gauge in a single director for ease of locating and editing.

The Gauge is for Cylinder Head Temperature based on the appearance of that from the P-47 Thunderbolt.
It was created as a Gauge SET so that there is a separate gauge for Engine 1 through Engine 4.
It makes the resulting library a bit bigger but saves the hassle if someone down the road wanrs to borrow the set for use on a 4-engine aircraft.
There have been a couple cases of folks around here finding a suitable appearing set of gauges and finding that they only had a set of three instead of four.

The first screenshot shows the needed source code for a gauge set.
Note that "Originals" is the directory used to store the pieces used to create the background or pointer bitmaps.
There is a JPG image of what the real gauge actually looks like which of course is not essential, but is a good reference.
When I am not so lazy, there might be a different background for each of the 4 gauges with slightly differently timed screws, etc.

The second screenshot shows an execution of the nmake build utility on the makefile that contains build instructions and dependencies.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Here is what the A6M panel looks like with all the latest gauge updates.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Here is a recent (last night) panel creation for a late model P-38 Lightning.
In this case, it is specifically for a early model P-38J without the dive recovery flaps.
I believe that around half of the gauges in use here are actually newly programmed twin-engine gauges.
The rest are stock P51D gauges.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Ivan's Workshop is in the midst of working on a new gauge. It isn't necessarily anything unusual, but it is something that the technicians at Ivan's Workshop have no experience with.
A new gauge is an incredibly TEDIOUS endeavour, and I haven't even gotten to the debugging stage yet.

As for New Gauges in the plans, I figure the P-38 Panel above deserves about another two gauges at least and the A6M panel should have another two gauges maybe. None of those should be particularly complicated but all of them are on the tedious side.
It is quite amazing how many of the older projects could use an actual panel of their own instead of a stock panel.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

The new gauge is going to get moved to the side to allow for a couple other useful "instant gratification" type projects.
It gets a bit discouraging to be working constantly on a single project when the progress and completion are uncertain, so there will be a couple other hopefully quick projects going on simultaneously.

- Ivan.

 

[Ivan]

Here is another screenshot of the current P-38 panel with the dual pointer gauges a bit more obvious.
The ignition for Engine 2 (The Right Engine) is switched off.
The things to look for in the screenshot are the following:
The dual magneto has the Right ignition switched off. (Lower Left of the panel)
The fuel gauges above the magneto switches show no difference between Left and Right.
That is because even though only one engine is running, it is drawing from both sides. Side effect of no fuel selector.
The Tachometer at Upper Right of panel shows both Engines at 3000 RPM. One is providing power, one prop is windmilling.
The Manifold Pressure gauge to the immediate left of the Tachometer shows the "L" pointer at 55 inches Hg while the "R" pointer shows only 25 inches Hg.
The two Three-Way gauges below the Tach and MP gauges show about the same Fuel and Oil Pressure for both engines but the Oil Temperature is much lower for the Right side gauge.
The round gauge at the lower right of the panel is the Radiator Temperature gauges. The Left Engine shows just under 100 degrees. The Right Engine shows near 0 degrees.

Seems like everything with the exception of the fuel quantity gauges, everything is about where it should be for a P-38 flying on one engine.

- Ivan.